Sixaxis of Evil

by ERIK LEIJON

When Sony originally announced they were changing the batarang concept for the Sixaxis controller (with a design more similar to the dual shock), there were rumblings from gamers that the motion-sensor technology felt like a rushed attempt to emulate the new-fangled Wii controller. While that wasn’t the case, since the announcements were months apart and R&D was probably years in the making, Sony didn’t do themselves any favours by not fully harnessing the Sixaxis technology right away.

Heavenly Sword (PS3/SCE, Ninja Theory) and Lair (PS3/SCEA, Factor 5) are two new first-party PS3 action titles that implement motion-sensor controls, with understandably mixed results. Both games offer a glimpse into the PS3’s potential future, despite their shortcomings.

The Heavenly Sword advertisements are tailored towards celebrating its aesthetic qualities, which is a good idea since the game is visually rich. It’s a third-person action button masher set in feudal times and based on the God of War titles. There are similar sequences that involve pressing buttons in the correct sequence, and the fighting alternates between short- and long-range attacks. I’m not the biggest fan of hack-and-slash Dynasty Warriors-style action games—typically, they don’t involve very much skill and no matter how wonderful the visuals are, there’s a sense of monotony that sinks in—although Heavenly Sword tends to break up long action sequences with cutscenes involving a hilarious Andy Serkis or with close-up finishing moves. In fact, the only time I didn’t enjoy playing this game was having to repeat fights after dying, since having to go back and kill the same 100-man army doesn’t have the same impact the second time.

The Sixaxis portions of the game involve giving aftertouch to projectile weapons like arrows or cannons. Upon shooting, holding the button will allow the player to see from the perspective of the projectile, to help direct it into enemies using the Sixaxis. It works similarly to the Wii controller, in that tilting the controller even slightly will cause the weapon to move on the screen. It’s really nifty at first, but there isn’t much expansion on the original idea, so the later shooting levels don’t incrementally build from the first one. At six hours, Heavenly Sword is also too short for such a high-profile game. With limited replay value, it may be tough to justify a full purchase, but you won’t necessarily play through the dense story mode in one sitting. At the very least, Heavenly Sword warrants being played through once.

Lair, a far more ambitious and potentially ingenious concept, is a open-ended shooter similar to the non-rails Star Fox levels, with dragons instead of arwings. The Sixaxis is more essential here than Heavenly Sword, as the dragon moves entirely with the motion-sensor. Turning works nicely and isn’t too difficult, but the 180-degree turn requires the controller to be perfectly level since gamers must tilt the controller upward twice. If the controller is crooked, the dragon will speed up or simply not do anything. Visually, it looks like a first-gen PS3, with some highly detailed buildings and environments brought down by frame-rate issues. With my limp typist wrists, having to continuously twist them to control my dragon did not help my carpal tunnel, and I couldn’t play longer than an hour without taking a break.

Heavenly Sword and Lair have some great ideas and there are moments of great pleasure to be had with both, yet there are minor problems that tend to overshadow these positive attributes. It will be interesting to see if Sony continues to embrace the Sixaxis with the recent announcement of a new dual shock controller.